EDITORIAL

Any new editor is faced with the daunting task of matching the level of readership input & interest generated by the previous 10 years of successful & sustained effort on the part of his predecessor. With typical generosity, Fred has “bequeathed” me his residue of unpublished articles – some of which appear in this issue. The remainder – completing the “Colworth Airlines” series - will appear in later issues.

In future, the Newsletter will depend entirely on YOUR input, in the following categories:

1. THE FUTURE. Given that we are all pensioners of a certain age, actuarial statistics suggest that this is not a fruitful area for articles – though any “crystal ball” articles will be sympathetically considered.

2. THE PRESENT Pensionsers’ trips & personal holidays are always welcome subjects, especially because they not only remind those attending of recent pleasures, they also encourage those who didn’t to try the venues out for themselves. Please keep these coming ..they are the life blood of the Newsletter. So are articles about unusual topics of interest [don’t ask me which – they will announce themselves!].

3. THE PAST. This is a rich vein, largely untapped since Mike Jones’ series of articles about Colworth’s [pre-Unilever] past. However over the past 50 years, staff have come & gone; so have buildings: many with interesting [often hilarious, sometimes scurrilous] associated memories & ongoing contacts. After 32 years at Colworth, the editor’s failing memory still retains clear & affectionate impressions of former colleagues who left Colworth & of buildings he has loved [& hated!]. If you will send me yours, I won’t publish MINE! You have been warned!.

Please remember: it’s YOUR newsletter….the editor simply publishes what you offer. I look forward to a flood of articles to keep the Newsletter going for another 10 years.

Peter Collier [petercrssl@aol.com; tel. 01933 35 66 56]

Notice of future Special Events September 14th – Olympic Village Tour October 26th - Unilever House Dinner

December 13th – Pensioners’ Christmas lunch at Knuston Hall

FRED’S LEGACY Who Do You Think They Were?

[an article written by Sue James, the widow of Colin James who died earlier this year] I can see committed family historians shrugging their shoulders with a ‘been there, got the T-shirt’ response. This article is aimed at those who wonder what the fascination is in looking into the past. From a personal perspective I suppose I am curious about people’s lives and by looking at family members one feels more involved with their lives. Although I started with my family history there was not any obvious interesting lives, mainly agricultural labourers, silk weavers and paupers. Then I looked at my husband’s family, and I had struck gold! Colin’s father was Welsh and looking at his family tree was an interesting journey. A name like James in Wales I hear you say, that must be the proverbial needle in a haystack! Not so! The family history societies in Wales are very committed and have plotted a number of graveyards. Memorials make interesting reading, as often the occupation and address are included on the stone. Unfortunately welsh graveyards tend to be on hillsides, closely packed and not in good condition. Walking round a lonely one on my own with dusk falling I realised that this was not a good idea as if I fell and joined the occupant no one knew where I was! Colin’s father was from Montgomeryshire, now Powys, but his family originated from the Aberystwyth area. They were tanners and had a tannery in Dol-y-bont. This is where it becomes interesting as I now found out about tanning in the 19th century and also discovered a derelict early tannery built in 1819 in Machynlleth. Since they were prominent citizens I decided to find out about as much as I could about Colin’s great-uncles. One was a surgeon, another a ship owner and two were on Aberystwyth council, and one became Mayor of Aberystwyth, but that is another story. Next it was the turn of the great aunts to be scrutinised and sadly women’s lives are not so well documented. However, great aunt Anna Marie was the second wife of a master mariner and their lives were quite interesting. I was able to chart the life of her husband from going to sea as a boy of 12 years old and his subsequent rise through mate to master mariner. Researching all this let me find out about ship registration, board of trade reports, the examination requirements for master mariner and extra master mariner, and the rigging for fore and aft and square sail ships. The detail of documentation pre-computer days was amazing and shows how organised our great grand parents were. All of this can be found out from the comfort of your own home and if your interest in their activities grows then you may, as I did, wish to travel and find out more. So there you are, don’t just look at names; find out what is behind them. It will lead you down many interesting paths.

Manure...an interesting fact In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before the invention of commercial fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common. It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by-product is methane gas of course. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM! Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening .After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the instruction ' Stow high in transit ' posted on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane. Thus evolved the term ' S.H.I.T ' , (Stow High In Transit) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day. You probably did not know the true history of this word. Neither did I. I had always thought it was a golf term.

Colworth Twenty five years ago – extracts from the Colworth Newsletter

For a several months in 1983/4 Colworth had an anonymous poet laureate who commented in rhyme on various aspects of life in the Laboratory in the Colworth Newsletter. He was clearly a microbiologist but I don’t think many people knew exactly who he was, although there were a number of suspects. He reigned for several editions until he upset his colleagues by having a dig at them. We print a selection below. Fred Trussell

This poem commented on the chopping down of the fabulous copper beech tree that grew in the centre of the back lawn, and the addition of a new [the current ?] chimney on the boiler house – both contentious at the time

They’ve built a chimney in the sky to take the boiler fumes up high. Releasing them where I suppose they don’t offend a human nose. They did their best to entertain.

They dragged in an enormous crane with overalled men who frightened me

by balancing precariously. You never would get me up there

I’m dizzy standing on a chair They finished with a coat of paint but somehow a grey chimney aint for croquet players, birds or me

a replacement for the copper tree.

The Archipoet of M and P

A poem which encapsulated people’s frustration after the installation of the security card system for all the buildings. The reaction time of the system could be very slow, or even absent.

Wait and wait and wait they say. I wait and wait and wait, OK ? I wave my card before the door

and then I wait a little more. Then by kind person I’m espied

who lets me in from the other side Or else I stand there all alone, then seek a nearby telephone

to ring for help. Or else I shout or wait for someone coming out. At least the systems democratic, all sorts of persons going frantic.

Locked out returning from the loo? It locks me out, it locks out you.

Engineer cleaner and a guest are locked out just like all the rest. Its very wrong to wedge the door or leave things lying on the floor The choice is either we just wait or seal the catch with sellotape.

And a little dig at conditions in the Microbiology laboratories in the hot weather.

Oh to be an anaerobe now that Summers here,

slurping up the Co2 in Bacti’s stagnant air.

No need for a platinum catalyst in a Baird and Tatlock jar.

Just incubate me on the bench where the clostridia are.

Oh breathe the wafts from smelly drains and the smoke from you-know-who

Oh where oh where has our oxygen gone, I wish I was there too.

Even tropical rainforests have their share of air.

We’ve only got their warmth and damp, but no-one seems to care.

Oh for the breath of the open road, or an open window would do. Make it as large as possible,

or even give us two. Its hard to be an anaerobe

when I can see the trees and grass. Its summer, and there’s oxygen

outside the airproof glass.

Clearly the Anaerobe verse, and another entitled ‘once a jolly swabman’ which took a dig at the somewhat contentious way the Microbiologists took culture swabs in the Pilot Plant [too long to include] was too much for the system to bear. In the following month the Arch Poet of M&P penned his last verse.

I've made a comment occasionally, about Colworth, from day to day.

But apparently my pen has run too enthusiastically away.

And I have said some naughty things one simply should not say.

This verse is to apologise

for the ones I wrote before. There’ll be no more of Arch Poet

on the Bacti Corridor And I can assure the angry ones

that I will write no more.

Sad

Events & Excursions: June – December 2011

June 20th: Riseley Ladies’Walk June 24th - 26th June: Striders’ Marathon Weekend June 26th. Crawlers Walk – Knuston Hall [with lunch]. July 5th: Thames boat trip with visit to Maple Durham House July 17th – 21st: Manchester holiday August [date tba]: Talk by Don Darling about his barn conversion – with lunch September 14th: Olympic Village tour September 20th: Mill Theatre – “Wait until Dark” September [last week, date tba]: Lunch at the Windmill Club, Rushden October 26th: Unilever House dinner [with free time] November 15th: Mill Theatre – “Half a Sixpence” November 24th: Peacocks Auctioneer evening December 13th: Christmas lunch at Knuston Hall.

Chairman: Cham Willey 01604 402730 Secretary: Sally Butler 01933 314654

upa.colworth@btinternet.com http://homepage.ntlworld.com/conrad.astill

EVENTS PLANNING The committee will meet on August 3rd to start planning next year’s events.

Please use the enclosed questionnaire to record any comments on past events & suggestions for future trips, & return it to

[E-mail: upa.colworth@btinternet.com;

Obituaries Lilian Butler [wife of ex-UPA Chairman Peter Butler & local school teacher] sadly passed away in April. Her Thanksgiving service was packed, with many Colworth pensioners present as a tribute not only to her active participation in many pensioners’ events, but also a reflection of the fact that in her long teaching career in Rushden she taught many of Colworth’s technical staff. She was also a well-known local poet, winning the Northamptonshire poetry competition, and a keen singer with Rushden’s St. Cecilia Singers. Mary Holland [wife of George Holland] died very suddenly on 31st March. She had two short spells of work at Colworth, one as a trainee taster, the other in ESL as it then was, microfilming all the Clearance applications. Their outings with the Colworth Crawlers were ultimately stopped by Mary’s asthma.

Our sympathy goes out to Peter, George & their families